Expert advice on cybersecurity, cybersafety and cybercrime. Using real incidents, I explain why cyber risks occur, what form they take, and how they affect cybercitizens as individuals, employees, citizens and parents. Opinions expressed in this blog represent my personal views

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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Russell Crowe’s tweet embarrasses a million fans

Russell
Crowe, the Australian actor best known for his role as Roman general Maximus
Decimus Meridius in the epic film the Gladiator gave his one million fans a
rude shock when a sultry picture of a women’s pubic area appeared in his
twitter feed. His public relation team claimed that his twitter account was
hacked into, and Crowe himself denied any knowledge of the pubic tweet.

Posting a
nude picture would perhaps be the silliest action by any hacker, and therefore
seems improbable. Typically hackers tweet spam links or broadcast their
achievement once a celebrity account is compromised. A good example is the very
real hack of the vivacious Lady Gaga’s twitter and Facebook accounts, to
tweet/post a fake survey link masked as an attractive free ipad giveaway
gimmick.

Whatever the
truth may be; we must ensure that no one get holds of our unattended phone and
tweets onto our twitter feed. Technically, you are hacked but by someone known;
naughty children, colleagues or an estranged partner for example. Password
protecting your phone is a useful defense.

Another intriguing
but largely improbable theory, based on the recent Chinese
incident of a technician accidentally broadcasting a porn film on public
LED screen, is of a PR manager accidently tweeting on a client’s account, while
viewing pictures on his device.

Tweet happy fingers
is a strict no no; but that advice happens to be good old commonsense not cyber
security.

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About Me

Security author and passionate blogger @LuciusonSecurity writing on risks that affect Internet users such as cyber crime, defamation, impersonation, privacy and security. Working hard to reduce cyber risks to some of the world's largest businesses. Find me on Twitter @luciuslobo or Linkedin at http://in.linkedin.com/in/luciuslobo